I love stories where the antagonist’s main weapon isn’t violence or power but instead where they use fear to terrify and demoralize their opponents, and where the protagonists are fairly weak so they have to evade, support eachother, and use hope and intelligence to overcome obstacles
For instance in Return if the King when Sam and Frodo travel through Moridor, their main enemy isn’t always the just a bunch of orcs but also fighting exhaustion, terror, and their own greed.
Similarly in the video game Deadspace I love how the character is fighting an absolutely terrifying monstrosity. Instead of being that cunning or manipulative, the necromorphs are just overwhelmingly scary. (Although the gore and lack of secondary protagonists is less what I’m looking for)
Reservoir dogs is another similar example where the characters are constantly fighting panic and chaos at every turn.
Are there any other stories out there with similar vibes?
by SuccotashComplete